Monday 20 April 2009
The 2009 NSW State Snooker Championship was held over the weekend of the 18th and 19th of April at Club Marconi. 38 players contested this years Championship with Paul Balzer taking out the event being his first ever title win (State or National).
Paul Balzer, a winner of many tournaments was proud to win his first ever State Title Major having previously won the NSW State Minors and numerous Australian Ranking events including the South Pacific Open Snooker and Fred Osbourne Memorial Snooker on 3 occassions. On his path to victory, Paul defeated Nathan Karam, Dallas Hershall, George Dennoui, Vinnie Calabrese and then Shawn Budd in the final. Congratulations Paul Balzer.
Congratulations also to Shawn Budd from Sydney in reaching the final and only narrowly loosing the final 4-3 in a close deciding frame. Shawn defeated Nick Waymouth, Dave Waller, Michael Sharp and Roger Farebrother to reach the final. Other performances worth noting include George Dennoui reaching the quarter finals having defeated 4 seed Stuart Lawler and Gary Mares who earlier defeated Frank Karaberas. Michael Sharp also had a good return to snooker defeating Luke Hough and then number 6 seed Joe Minici to reach the quarter finals.
The quarter finals were played from the Sunday onwards with 2 of the top 8 seeds not qualifying. Vinnie Calabrese defeated Alex Render 4-0. Paul Balzer defeated George Dennoui 4-1. Shawn Budd defeated Michael Sharp 4-2. Roger Farebrother defeated recent Oceania Snooker Champion Glen Wilkinson 4-2.
In the first semi final, Paul Balzer defeated Vinnie Calabrese (2008 winner) 4-3 in a very close final frame after Vinnie was leading by 60 odd points. In the other semi final, Shawn Budd proved too strong defeating Roger Farebrother 4-0. Roger did not seem as switched on as his previous match and looked a little tired.
The highest break of the tournament went to Alex Render for making a 134 total clearance against David Liu in the last 32 stage. This is his highest break in tournament and first in a ranking event. Aside from Warren King's 147 during the NSW Open Snooker in 1994, Alex's break is the highest recorder for the NSW State Snooker Championship (not including NSW Open that replaced State Snooker for the late 80's and early 90's. Shawn Budd also secured a century break during his semi final match managing a nice 111 with pink and black left on the table.
On behalf of all the players I would like to thank Bill Hart for his work over the weekend once again. His efforts are little rewarded! Thank you also to other members of the NSW Billiards and Snooker Association that assisted and also to our sponsor Club Marconi and in particular Jim Ruisi, Angelo Ruisi and Vic Sacco.
For full match results, please click on the web page link below.
Alex Render
Vice President
NSW Billiards & Snooker Association
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